Nobody laughing at Victorino deal now

Boston Red Sox right fielder Shane Victorino connects for an RBI-single during the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 4 of the American League Divisional Series at Tropicana Field. (Steve Mitchell/USA TODAY Sports)

He began the season labelled in some quarters as the worst free-agent signing of the winter. By the time the last pitch is thrown in baseball's Octoberfest, Shane Victorino may very well turn out to be the best buy of all.

Coming off a season in which he had been traded by the Phillies, where he had played in two World Series and been in the playoffs five straight years, to the Dodgers and produced some of the poorest offensive numbers of his career, it was a popular belief that Victorino, at 32, was in decline.

That's why a lot of eyebrows were raised when the Red Sox signed him to a three-year, $39-million deal.

What Boston got in return was a three-time Gold Glove centrefielder who has patrolled the vast expanse of right field at Fenway Park, in the words of the team owner, John Henry "better than any player since Dwight Evans." Add to that career highs in batting average (.294) and on-base percentage (.351), accomplished in the tough environment of the best division in baseball, Victorino might have been the most valuable rightfielder in baseball. No other rightfielder had a better WAR (wins above replacement). Baseball-Reference has him at 6.1 WAR and FanGraphs has him at 4.7.

The numbers themselves stand on their own but Victorino has brought so much more to a Boston team that was a shambles at the end of the 2012 season but is now favoured to win it all in 2013.

"He just drips with intangibles," said Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon after Victorino, drove in what would be the winning run in the fourth and final game of the ALDS.

Victorino's forte is doing the little things. In the ALDS, whether it was taking out the second baseman to break up a double play, taking one for the team, or running out an infield grounder to plate an extra run, no detail was too small.

Victorino is no stranger to the intensity of October and, he says, that's where the little plays, the things that don't always show up in the boxscore, or get dwarfed by the obvious, are the most important.

"The little things like that, taking an extra base, (Xander Bogaerts) at-bat the other night, all those things collectively you put that all together and at the end you say, 'Wow, that little thing led to this,' -he said before Game 1 of the ALCS Saturday night.

"Those are all little plays that don't really get talked about, but they all count just as big as hitting a solo home run."

Victorino hit .429 in the Tampa series with a .556 on-base percentage. The high OBP goes directly to his willingness to get drilled. Victorino was hit four times in the series, after being plunked a major league-high 18 times during the regular season. There were a couple of times when he appeared to turn towards the ball rather than away from it.

"People say I'm close to the plate, I crowd the plate," says Victorino, unapologetically. "Hey, it is what it is. And I know those guys aren't (hitting him) for any apparent reason, they're trying to make their pitches and execute their pitches. So be it that I'm getting hit. It's one of those things.

"I'm going to go out there and try to be ready to hit the ball. And if it hits me -- I don't want to get hit, trust me, it doesn't feel good. Whatever it takes to win a ballgame. It's being the guy at the top of the lineup for the rest of the guys.

"I'm going to get hit. I'm not going to move. Again I've been able to escape serious injury and I hope that never happens. I never want to have a serious injury happen because of a hit by pitch, but that's just the way I play."

There are dozens of reasons why the Red Sox have rebounded from a 69-win season in 2012 to win 100 games in 2013 heading into the ALCS. Their core players -- Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz -- were solid. Their selection of free agent candidates, though, couldn't have been better. They stayed away from some of the more high-profile FA's and brought in Mike Napoli, Victorino, Koji Uehara, Ryan Dempster and Stephen Drew.

"In Philadelphia, we had people who had done everything you can do in the game, but we pulled for each other,'' says Victorino. "That's the kind of stuff that I've seen here with the Red Sox so far. There's been a lot of positive attitudes and looking forward to going out there as a team. We want to bring that chemistry and camaraderie and that's how you go out there and win.'

"We have guys who have been to all-star games. We have MVPs. We have guys who have been part of championship teams. And having the characters that were brought in this year, the personalities that are kind of uplifting. Sometimes that brings the best out of the guys, too, to have that mentality. You kind of check your ego at the door. We're all one and we're going to go out there and be one."

It's hard to measure attitude and cohesiveness. None of the new math prevalent in baseball has tackled chemometrics. If they do, they might want to talk to Shane Victorino.

Nobody laughing at Victorino deal now

He began the season labelled in some quarters as the worst free-agent signing of the winter. By the time the last pitch is thrown in baseball's Octoberfest, Shane Victorino may very well turn out to be the best buy of all.

Coming off a season in which he had been traded by the Phillies, where he had played in two World Series and been in the playoffs five straight years, to the Dodgers and produced some of the poorest offensive numbers of his career, it was a popular belief that Victorino, at 32, was in decline.

That's why a lot of eyebrows were raised when the Red Sox signed him to a three-year, $39-million deal.